Later this afternoon, Thomas Giblin of the U.S. Department of Labor and Roger Levy, the Editor-in-Chief of the new Defense Base Act and War Hazards Compensation Act Handbook, are scheduled to speak on the War Hazards Compensation Act, specifically - Detention Benefits. The Conference has been extremely informative to date. The Handbook is a must have for anyone interested in this relatively obscure area of workers' compensation programs.

On a more personal note, I just want to take a moment to thank the Editors at Lexis Nexis for including The Missing Man under the new Handbook's section on blogs in the Introduction to the Defense Base Act, Section 1.06 (page 1-11).

Wow. I'm stunned.

As some of you know, my interest in the Defense Base Act is the direct result of learning that Ultra Services wasn't carrying "insurance" when an employee, Kirk von Ackermann, disappeared in Iraq back in October of 2003. I spent two years trying to find out what happened, resulting in the article listed below.

A brilliant intelligence analyst with the U.S. Air Force prior to becoming a contractor, Kirk von Ackermann today continues to be the longest missing American civilian in Iraq.

Kirk von Ackermann

Missing In Iraq

Ryan G. Manelick

On December 14, 2003, his colleague, Ryan Manelick (right) was gunned down shortly after leaving Camp Anaconda also near Balad, Iraq. Both worked for the same contractor, Ultra Services of Istanbul, Turkey.